Google Pulls YouTube Channels For Hong Kong Protest Misinformation

By
Michael KanAug. 23, 2019, 6:55 a.m.

Google hasn't listed the 210 channels it disabled, so it remains unclear what was exactly posted. But the take down occurs as a Chinese state-run media outlet has been placing ads over YouTube critical of the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests.

(Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

Google has disabled 210 channels on YouTube for circulating misinformation about the ongoing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

Google connected the YouTube activity to the propaganda campaigns that Twitter and Facebook also witnessed and shut down on their own platforms on Monday.

"Earlier this week, as part of our ongoing efforts to combat coordinated influence operations, we disabled 210 channels on YouTube when we discovered channels in this network behaved in a coordinated manner while uploading videos related to the ongoing protests in Hong Kong," Google said in a blog post on Thursday.

The company refrained from connecting the YouTube activity specifically to the Chinese government like Twitter has. But Google's investigation did uncover the use of VPNs and other methods to disguise the origin of the YouTube accounts behind the videos.

Google hasn't listed the 210 channels it disabled, so it remains unclear how many views the videos received or what was exactly posted. But the take down occurs as a Chinese state-run media outlet has been placing ads over YouTube critical of the Hong Kong protests.

According to internet users, one such video ad from China Central Television (CCTV) depicts the Hong Kong protesters as a violent masked mob while also calling on the local police to enforce the law.

Google hasn't commented on the YouTube ads from China's state-run media. In the meantime, the CCTV channel on YouTube remains up. Twitter, on the other hand, has decided to generally stop running ads from all state-run media outlets.

Although the Chinese government has banned access to Youtube from within mainland China, the video-sharing platform remains accessible in Hong Kong.